The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is an all-GT format race featuring only GTLM (GT LeMans) and GTD (GT Daytona). Nine GTLM cars and 16 GTD cars took part in the qualifying session.

Hawksworth, who was running P4, lost a position in the last lap. This was his first time driving at VIR.

“It was a pretty good session,” he said. “Both cars in the top six. My last lap was a little scruffy, probably could have been P4. The car felt pretty good. Good race balance, not so much a qualifying balance. I think we’re a little bit behind with the BoP this weekend. But all in all, a decent session.”

It was an exciting 15 minutes with the top five positions in the GTD class finishing less than half a second apart.

Karam said the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 felt good and, while he would have preferred to be further up on the grid, he felt that the car was in good shape and that he ran a clean race.

“I was really happy with how it felt,” Karam said. “I feel like we’re really struggling with straight-line speeds right now, between both cars. So unfortunately, we’re fighting an uphill battle there. The team did a great job. When you see both cars finishing P5 and P6, and they started together, you can pretty much tell the drivers did everything they could.”

3GT Racing Technical Director, John Gentilozzi said the team came to Virginia with a set up that turned out to be less than what they hoped.

“Everybody worked really hard to get us in the right direction,” he said. “And by the time we went through qualifying, I thought both Jack and Sage ran pretty much perfect laps. I don’t know that there was anything left out of either car. We’re still working our way up to those other guys at the front, but come race time, we’re going to have a couple of great cars throughout the entire stint. And in the end, that is what’s important.”

The green flag will fall on the 10th race in the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series Sunday, Aug. 27 at 1:35 p.m. The two-hour and 40-minute race will be streamed live at IMSA.com and televised on FS1.

ABOUT 3GT RACING:

3GT Racing was formed to race the Lexus RC F GT3. Owned and operated by five-time Trans-Am Series Champion, Paul Gentilozzi and his longtime partners, Tony and John Gentilozzi, the East Lansing, Michigan-based team principals have been involved in motorsports for more than 46 years and they have claimed more than 75 victories and 15 manufacturer and driver championships.

EAST LANSING, MI (Aug. 24, 2017) – 3GT Racing will be in the second, and last, all-GT format race in the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship series this weekend at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, VA. The Michelin GT Challenge will be Aug. 27 and features only GTLM (GT Le Mans) and GTD (GT Daytona).

The No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 will be co-piloted by gold driver Jack Hawksworth and Hall of Famer, Scott Pruett. The team switched silver drivers for the first time at Road America and plans to stick with the new pairing through the rest of the season. Robert Alon and Sage Karam will drive the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3.

“3GT has some great drivers,” Pruett said. “Mix them up however you want, they are still going to be great drivers. I’m happy to drive with Sage. I’m happy to drive with Jack. We’re just trying to find the combination to get that break-through. I thought it would be Watkins Glen, then Mosport, then Lime Rock – when I was in the No. 14. Jack and I ran second and third for most of Road America in the No. 15, until the yellow flag confusion. We’ve had strong races, now it’s time for all the pieces to come together.”

Pruett, who has had three wins at VIR (he is tied with driver Bill Auberlen, for the most wins at the historic track) last drove at the track in 2011. His last win there was in 2010.

So far in the season, between the two cars, 3GT Racing has earned eight top ten finishes. Five in the No. 14 and three in the No. 15 and two top five finishes (one in each car), but a win or podium has eluded them.

Hawksworth, in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3, turned the fastest lap in the GTD class at Watkins Glen and Road America. He said what he wants most now, is a win.

While he has never raced at the 3.27 mile, 17-turn course, he did get a chance to do a few laps there earlier this year.

“It’s a fun track,” he said. “The fun tracks are the ones with a lot of technical sequences, lots of direction change and not a lot of rest time. It will be a good track for us. Right now, I feel like we have everything we need – good lap times, good pits, a reliable, fast car – and the last three races, especially in the No. 15 Lexus, we’ve been right there, at the edge. I think it’s our time.”

Drivers in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, Karam and Alon, have both raced at VIR, Alon most recently in Prototype Lites in 2015. Karam’s last visit was with Skip Barber in 2009. Last month, Karam, in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3, earned the team’s first GTD pole position at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

“It’s been a while since I was at VIR, but I remember the track,” he said. “I’m in a much faster car now and Rob and I work well together. We only have three races left to go and we all want to be on the podium. We just have to work harder and be mistake free.”

Alon said he thinks the team has shown an amazing amount of progress. “We all work together and the team has done a lot this year,” he said. “We got hit with some BoP and had some bad luck in general, but we’ve been strong and we’ve shown speed. We’re ready for that podium.”

Two hour-long practice sessions for the Michelin GT Challenge will be held on Friday, Aug. 25 and a third on Saturday morning. Qualifying will be from 12:20 to 1 p.m. Saturday and the race will begin Sunday at 1:35 p.m. (ET). The two-hour and 40-minute race will be streamed live at IMSA.com and will be televised on FS1 beginning at 1:30 p.m. (ET) Sunday.

ABOUT 3GT RACING:

3GT Racing was formed to race the Lexus RC F GT3. Owned and operated by five-time Trans-Am Series Champion, Paul Gentilozzi and his longtime partners, Tony and John Gentilozzi, the East Lansing, Michigan-based team principals have been involved in motorsports for more than 46 years and they have claimed more than 75 victories and 15 manufacturer and driver championships.

ELKHART LAKE, WI (Aug. 7, 2017) — 3GT Racing continues to rack up top-ten finishes, adding two more at the final flag in the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. The 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the inaugural year for the team and Lexus.

Pruett, who qualified the No. 15 P4, came out strong at the start of the race and maintained the position until he came in to pit and for a driver change.

“The start was great,” Pruett said. “We brought the car in, hit our marks. I came in and Jack got in and took off. And then we came in for our second stop and just before getting out of our box, the yellow came out, and typically that’s a good thing. Then 3GT crew went to work, they serviced the car, all went smooth. Then Jack got held at exit. I’m disappointed for the team, for Lexus, but we’re going to keep moving forward.”

The No. 15 car earned a drive-through penalty and, despite the 10th finish, Hawksworth had the fastest lap of the race, 2:07.399 in the 61st lap.

Hawksworth said the 10th place finish was certainly not representative of the cars or the team and he was disappointed in the penalty.

“We’ve had great cars all year,” Hawksworth said. “On a few occasions, being a new team, we’ve hurt ourselves with incidents on the track and in the pit, but today ran like clockwork. Scott did a fantastic job on the first stint. The pit stops were on point, the car was fast.”

John Gentilozzi, 3GT Racing’s Technical Director said the team was on the way to a good race when the green flag dropped.

“We were quite fortunate to have been in the middle of our pit stop when the full course yellow occurred. Unfortunately, the pass around procedure was begun far earlier than usual and it caused us to get caught in the field unsure if we were eligible to pass around and retake our rightful position,” Gentilozzi said.

“Overall, we had a good weekend going. The engineering team worked to make a good race car. The drivers did their job and drove hard and kept us on track. The crew nailed the pit stops, but ultimately it was something out of our control that took a solid finish away from us. We will learn from this experience and move on to the VIR and keep working toward our first win.”

Karam and Alon were happy to be in the top ten, but both drivers thought early in the race that a podium was a real possibility. This was the first race for the pair. The team had switched silver-rated drivers for the Wisconsin race.

Karam said he asked Alon to keep the car in good shape and get it to him in one piece.

“Rob did it,” Karam said. “He gave me the car without a scratch on it. Hats off to him –he was a great teammate this weekend. Drove his heart out. The race was going well for me, it was so hard to pass. We got caught in the pits. I thought we were shaping up for a podium. I feel like every weekend we get more and more competitive as a team and it’s coming. That podium is coming.”

Alon said he felt good about his start in the race and, like Karam, he feels positive that a podium is right around the corner.

“We got a top-10 finish so that’s really positive,” Alon said. “And I honestly think we could have had a podium today, but things happened and it didn’t work out that way. I was happy with my drive. I think as a team everything is really coming together and we’re ready for more.”

The next race will be Aug. 25-27 at VIR, Virginia International Raceway.

About 3GT Racing

3GT Racing was formed to race the Lexus RC F GT3. Owned and operated by five-time Trans-Am Series Champion, Paul Gentilozzi and his longtime partners, Tony and John Gentilozzi, the East Lansing, Michigan-based team principals have been involved in motorsports for more than 46 years and have claimed more than 75 victories and 15 manufacturer and driver championships.

The team made a driver change with the silver-rated drivers for the Road America race, putting Robert Alon in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 with Sage Karam, and Scott Pruett with Jack Hawksworth in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3.

“Racing in the GTD category is so tight,” Pruett said. The difference between first and fourth position was measured in tenths of a second.

“I think today was a good day for me in the No. 15 car,” he said. “The car felt pretty good. We’ll make some changes for the race and see where we go.”

Pruett said every car is unique, even if it comes from the same manufacturer. So being in the No. 15 instead of the No. 14 did call for some accommodation.

“There’s a little bit of learning, of adapting, not just to the car, but to the engineers and everybody involved,” he said. “Here at 3GT Racing, we’ve been working closely together on both the No. 14 and No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3s, so the transition is as short as it could be.”

Alon qualified the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 with a fastest lap of 2:07:894, earning a 10th place on the starting grid. The No. 14 ran out of fuel near the end of the second to last lap.

“We change the setup of each car from race to race and sometimes from pit stop to pit stop, so for me being in the No. 15 wasn’t a lot different from driving the No. 14,” Alon said. “During qualifying I struggled a bit in the early laps, and then I was doing better and increasing speed. I think if I hadn’t run out of fuel I might have picked up more speed in the last lap.”

3GT Racing’s Technical Director, John Gentilozzi, said the change in drivers is meant to give the team a different perspective.

“Both cars did well today,” Gentilozzi said. “With variable weather conditions yesterday, our first true runs on a dry track came this morning. It’s a testament to our team and drivers that we were able to work out good setups for both cars.

“We feel like we have a strong chance of a podium going into tomorrow, and we will push to get our best result of the season.”

The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America, a two-hour, 40-minute race, will be televised live Sunday, Aug. 6 at 1:30 p.m. (ET) on FS1.

About 3GT Racing

3GT Racing was formed to race the Lexus RC F GT3. Owned and operated by five-time Trans-Am Series Champion, Paul Gentilozzi and his longtime partners, Tony and John Gentilozzi, the East Lansing, Michigan-based team principals have been involved in motorsports for more than 46 years and have claimed more than 75 victories and 15 manufacturer and driver championships.

EAST LANSING, MI (Aug. 3, 2017) — This weekend will find the 3GT Racing team at the historical Road America track in Elkhart Lake, WI. The four-plus mile track is the longest road course of the season featuring 14 turns and a straightaway where 3GT Racing gold drivers, Jack Hawksworth in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 and Sage Hawksworth in the No. 14, plan to aim for the lead.

Hawksworth, who held the lead in the GTD class at Lime Rock for 29 laps, said he’s hoping to have that opportunity again at Road America, a track where he has had some experience. He raced TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in 2014 and last year in the Kohler Grand Prix Verizon IndyCar Series race.

“I want to win,” Hawksworth said. “This is a good course for me. Suits my driving style. At some tracks, I have to adapt my style, but at Road America, I don’t. The course was made for me.”

The team will make a driver change with the silver-rated drivers for the Road America race, putting Robert Alon in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 with Karam and Hall of Famer Scott Pruett with Hawksworth in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3.

3GT Racing’s Technical Director, John Gentilozzi, said the change will give the team a different perspective. “We really feel that by making these changes we will get a fresh look at everything,” he said. The change is currently planned for this race only.

Every driver on the team has experience at Road America. Pruett knows the track well having earned victories in 1988 at the SCCA Trans Am series, and in 2011 and 2012, with back-to-back wins in the Grand Am Rolex sports car series.

“It’s a great track,” Pruett said. “I think we’ve made huge gains since we started the season at Daytona. I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made and we’re going to continue along that path.”

The No. 15 has accumulated three top-10 finishes in the last four races. “We were really fast at Watkins Glen, we were quick at Mosport and we were leading at Lime Rock,” Hawksworth said. “This time we need a podium.”

Robert Alon won last year’s Prototype Challenge class race at Road America. He will be joining Sage Karam in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3. Alon said he’s looking forward to racing there this weekend.

“I really like the track,” he said. “It’s fast, really fast. You really have to be quick at every corner. I can guarantee it’s going to be fun and a good race.”

Karam left his mark at Road America in 2010 when he was 15 years old and set a new track speed record during qualifying and won back-to-back USF2000 races.

“It’s one of those tracks in America that you are excited to go to and drive,” Karam said. “It’s a long-high speed track and I’ve had some good luck there. I’m looking forward to getting back. I think we’re in a better position with our car at road America than we were at Lime Rock. We had the wheel issue and some other things – we just need to have some luck.”

The No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 crossed the finish in 12th at Lime Rock after a problem with the right front wheel put the team out of the front running.

3GT Racing was formed to race the Lexus RC F GT3. Owned and operated by five-time Trans-Am Series Champion, Paul Gentilozzi and his longtime partners, Tony and John Gentilozzi, the East Lansing, Michigan-based team principals have been involved in motorsports for more than 46 years and they have claimed more than 75 victories and 15 manufacturer and driver championships.